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                  <p class="p_Heading1"><span class="f_Heading1">Qualifiers</span></p>



  
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                <p class="p_BodyText"><span class="f_BodyText">A </span><span class="f_BodyText" style="font-style: italic;">Qualifier</span><span class="f_BodyText"> is a property of an <a href="associate.htm">Association</a> that limits the nature of the relationship between two classifiers or objects.</span></p>
<p class="p_BodyText"><span class="f_BodyText">Some examples of qualified associations are shown in the following diagram:</span></p>
<p class="p_TextIndentedL2"><img src="qualassoc.png" width="590" height="293" border="0" alt="QualAssoc"></p>
<p class="p_BodyText"><span class="f_BodyText">Qualifiers are set in the </span><span class="f_UIControl"><a href="sourcerole.htm">Source Role</a></span><span class="f_BodyText"> and</span><span class="f_UIControl"> <a href="destinationrole.htm">Target Role</a></span><span class="f_BodyText"> tabs of the </span><span class="f_UIControl"><a href="connectiondetails.htm">Connector Properties</a></span><span class="f_BodyText"> dialog.</span></p>
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<td valign="bottom" width="955" bgcolor="#efeff7" style="width:955px; background-color:#efeff7;"><p class="p_TiporNote" style="border-top: none; border-right: none; border-left: none;"><span class="f_TiporNote">Notes:</span></p>
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<td width="955" bgcolor="#f7f7ff" style="width:955px; background-color:#f7f7ff;"><ul style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 14px; list-style-position: outside;">
<li><span class="f_TiporNoteText">Separate multiple Qualifiers with a semi-colon; each Qualifier then displays on a separate line. For example, in the diagram the Qualifier </span><span class="f_TiporNoteText" style="font-style: italic;">'rank:Rank;file:File'</span><span class="f_TiporNoteText"> has been rendered in two lines, with a line break at the </span><span class="f_TiporNoteText" style="font-weight: bold;">;</span><span class="f_TiporNoteText"> </span><span class="f_TiporNoteText">character.</span></li>
<li><span class="f_TiporNoteText">You can enable or disable Qualifier rectangles in the </span><span class="f_UIControl">Diagram</span><span class="f_TiporNoteText"> page of the </span><span class="f_UIControl">Options</span><span class="f_TiporNoteText"> dialog (select the </span><span class="f_MenuKeyField">Tools | Options | Diagram</span><span class="f_TiporNoteText"> menu option). If disabled, the old style text Qualifiers are used. It is not recommended that you disable Qualifiers as they are an integral part of the UML.</span></li>
<li><span class="f_TiporNoteText">You can enable or disable a mild shading on the Qualifier rectangles in the </span><span class="f_UIControl">Links</span><span class="f_TiporNoteText"> page of the </span><span class="f_UIControl">Options</span><span class="f_TiporNoteText"> dialog.</span></li>
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<p class="p_TextIndentedL2"><img src="shadequalifierboxes.png" width="246" height="168" border="0" alt="ShadeQualifierBoxes"></p>
<p class="p_SubHeadingL1"><span class="f_SubHeadingL1">OMG UML Specification</span></p>
<p class="p_BodyText"><span class="f_BodyText">The OMG UML specification (</span><span class="f_BodyText" style="font-style: italic;">UML Superstructure Specification, v2.1.1, p. 129</span><span class="f_BodyText">) states:</span></p>
<p class="p_OMGText"><span class="f_OMGText">A qualifier declares a partition of the set of associated instances with respect to an instance at the qualified end (the qualified instance is at the end to which the qualifier is attached). A qualifier instance comprises one value for each qualifier attribute. Given a qualified object and a qualifier instance, the number of objects at the other end of the association is constrained by the declared multiplicity. In the common case in which the multiplicity is 0..1, the qualifier value is unique with respect to the qualified object, and designates at most one associated object. In the general case of multiplicity 0..*, the set of associated instances is partitioned into subsets, each selected by a given qualifier instance. In the case of multiplicity 1 or 0..1, the qualifier has both semantic and implementation consequences. In the case of multiplicity 0..*, it has no real semantic consequences but suggests an implementation that facilitates easy access of sets of associated instances linked by a given qualifier value.</span></p>




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